Phil Nimmons born 3 June 1923

Phil Nimmons OC Ont (June 3, 1923 – April 5, 2024) was a Canadian jazz clarinetist, composer, bandleader, and educator. Nimmons played "free jazz" and mainstream styles, and other genres including classical music. He composed more than 400 pieces in various genres, and for various instrumentations including film scores, music for radio and television, chamber music, music for large ensembles, concert band and symphony orchestras.

Philip Rista Nimmons was born in Kamloops, British Columbia and raised in Vancouver. He began playing clarinet in high school, leading a small band in his Point Grey neighbourhood. While studying 1940-4 at the University of British Columbia in preparation for a career in medicine, he played in local dance bands (Sandy DeSantis, Stan Patton, Barney Potts, Wilf Wylie, and Dal Richards) and joined the jazz quintet of the guitarist Ray Norris, heard on CBC Vancouver radio's "Serenade in Rhythm." Nimmons wrote many arrangements for Norris's group and composed incidental music for the CBC Radio drama series "Anthology." He subsequently studied clarinet 1945-7 at the Juilliard School with Arthur Christmann and composition 1948-50 at the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto with Richard Johnston, Arnold Walter, and John Weinzweig.

                     Here's "Just You Just Me" from above album                                                

In 1953 Nimmons formed his own jazz band, which, after some CBC broadcasts, made its concert debut in 1956 at the Stratford Festival. In December of that year it played with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. In 1957 the band took the name Nimmons 'N' Nine. The ensemble grew to 16 musicians in 1965, renamed "Nimmons 'n' Nine Plus Six", and was active until 1980. The ensemble recorded nine albums from 1956 to 1976, toured regularly across Canada. 

In its day, his big band performed and gave clinics in many Canadian schools, the concert portions often recorded for broadcast by the CBC. Nimmons was one of the first jazz musicians to find a sympathetic ear in the Canada Council and the Ontario Arts Council; and both, along with the CBC, helped to sustain his band and support its tours. It toured widely in Canada and twice travelled in the 1960s to Canadian Armed Forces bases in Europe. His large group disbanded in the early 1980s, but Nimmons continued to play occasionally with smaller ensembles.

He released the album "Sands of Time" with a quartet in 2001. He chose to remain in Canada for his career despite that many of Canadian colleagues went to the United States. In a 2023 interview, he revealed that he stayed because, "If everybody left, we're not going to have anybody to create a musical scene in Canada". In addition to free jazz, Nimmons played other genres including classical music. He composed more than 400 pieces in various genres, and for various instrumentations including film scores, music for radio and television, chamber music, music for large ensembles, concert band and symphony orchestras. His composition "The Torch" was commissioned for the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, performed by a big band led by Rob McConnell. Other compositions by Nimmons include "Sleeping Beauty and the Lions" for concert band premiered at Expo 86, and "Moods and Contrasts" for the Esprit Orchestra in 1994.

Nimmons was a founder of the Canadian League of Composers. As an educator, he made substantial contributions to the study of jazz music. Along with Oscar Peterson and Ray Brown in the 1960s, Nimmons founded the Advanced School of Contemporary Music in Toronto. The institution was one of the first such schools to offer formal jazz training, but it lasted only a few years. He was involved in the development of the jazz performance program at the University of Toronto, joining in 1973. He became director emeritus of the University of Toronto degree program in jazz studies there in 1991. He also helped establish music education programs at University of Western Ontario, University of New Brunswick and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. He spent summers teaching at youth music camps.

In 1974, Nimmons received the first Juno Award given in the Juno Awards jazz category, for his album Atlantic Suite. In 1993, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. He was also a recipient of the Order of Ontario. In 2001, Nimmons was a recipient of the Jazz Education Hall of Fame which honours "individuals whose musical contributions and dedication to jazz education over the past 25 years have created new directions and curricular innovations for jazz education worldwide". In 2002, Nimmons received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award, Canada's highest honour in the performing arts, for his lifetime contribution to popular music. On November 21, 2005, the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada recognized Nimmons with the Lifetime Achievement Award. He received the DownBeat Achievement Award for jazz education in 2006, and the Jazz Report and National Jazz Award as clarinettist of the year for 13 consecutive years, from 1995 to 2008.

Nimmons met his wife Noreen Liëse Spencer at the Royal Conservatory of Music, and had three children. His wife was a concert pianist, who died in 2002 after 52 years of marriage. His daughter Holly, is the chief executive officer of the Canadian Music Centre. His sister Arlene Nimmons Pach was a classical pianist. He turned 100 on June 3, 2023, and died at his home in Thornhill, Ontario, on April 5, 2024.

(Edited from The Canadian Encyclopedia & Wikipedia)